Puzzle Pieces
by Winter Sapphire
Summary: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog; Penny/Billy. Captain Hammer and the LAPD weren’t the only secret viewers of Dr. Horrible’s blog.


Title: Puzzle Pieces  
Rating: PG  
Word Count: 689  
Pairings: Billy/Penny, Penny's thoughts  
Disclaimer: I don't own it, and if I did it wouldn't be half as epic.  
Summary: Captain Hammer and the LAPD weren't the only secret viewers of Dr. Horrible's blog.  
Notes: **See end.  
**

* * *

As the piece of shrapnel flew at her, piercing through her chest and stomach like she was made of thin linen, Penny couldn't help but think _how could I have not seen it?_

She still wasn't sure why she started watching his blog in the first place; he was evil. Or, at least, he tried to be. Somehow inside of her heart she had known he truly wasn't. Maybe it was the way he carried himself; the way he spoke and moved and how he had that endearing little squint-like blink.

_Billy has the same blink_, she recalled faintly, her body too tired to move and her mouth not wanting to work to say it out loud. _Billy has the same everything._

His blogs had been less frequent the past couple of weeks, Penny had noticed, and so had Billy's visits to the laundromat. Both of them had disappeared around the same time, hadn't they? The connection hadn't even struck her as odd then; the possibility that _she_ could have been the Doctor's laundromat crush hadn't even occurred to her.

"_... the fact that I inadvertently introduced my arch-nemesis to the girl of my dreams..._ _she called him sweet? How is he _sweet_?"_

But in reality it had been obvious - hadn't it? She had told _Billy_ Captain Hammer was sweet, not Dr. Horrible, and yet he had known on his blog. He had _known_, and- and- it had always been _Billy_, sweet, caring Billy who had listened attentively to stories of her life while he rarely delved into his own. Quiet, thoughtful Billy who had never once complained about hearing new stories about Captain Hammer, even though he had-

Penny shuddered violently as a wave of pain swept past the initial numbing shock, her eyes widening as her breathing became more and more labored. Her thoughts became jumbled, and suddenly she couldn't even remember what she had been thinking about in the first place. Thoughts of _Dr. Horrible_ and _Billy_ and _Captain Hammer_ all raced through her mind and she blinked furiously as she tried to connect them.

"Penny? Oh, _Penny_-"

Penny glanced up quickly, her eyes wandering aimlessly through the room until her vision focused in on the form kneeling over her, his eyes wide with shock even as his forehead creased in worry. There were goggles on his forehead, tilted more to one side than the other, and he looked _so familiar_ but she couldn't place where-

And then his intense steel-blue gaze met her's and Penny drew in a sharp breath that she knew wasn't from the pain. Her memory came in clear and sharp as she remembered the last time she had been so close to a pair of eyes like those, her hand lifting his chin up to look at her, a spark - she would be lying if she said there wasn't a spark - keeping them in place as she leaned millimeter by millimeter closer before remembering-

"Billy?" Her voice was working again, though it was soft even to her own ears, "Billy - 's that... that you?"

"Oh no, hold on-" his voice sounded panicked, scared, and Penny couldn't fathom why- why he would be- "Oh, no, no, no, no, _no_-"

Her mind briefly flitted back to the attack - she couldn't remember who or what it was, but the people had been scared. Had Billy been in the crowd too? Was he scared? Was he- was he- "Are... are you all right?"

He shot her the most pained look she had even seen before he glanced frantically across the room. "Oh, Penny- oh, just hold on- hold-"

"It's... it's okay." Her hand twitched with the want to suddenly reach up and stroke his hair, but it wouldn't move. Why wasn't it moving? Her mouth fought to form words, and she stumbled over them, "Captain... Captain Hammer will save us."

The world was fading, she realized, the sound around them dissolving into faint murmurs - a buzz of indistinguishable noise. She fought to regain consciousness, wondering why she was so _tired_, and her last thought before slipping into nothing went unheard.

_And I know you'll save me._

* * *

The "see end" doesn't want to unbold...

It's official, I'm a dork. Not because I wrote this, but because of my inspiration for it. Want to know what it was? I had the random thought while watching Dr. Horrible again the other day: "_Here's one from DeadNotSleeping - long time watcher, first time writing..."_ I started wondering who exactly DeadNotSleeping was, and then I started thinking about how insanely ironic and hilarious it would have been if he/she had been _Penny_, or if Penny had been a viewer of Dr. Horrible's blog and _still_ hadn't pieced the puzzle pieces together until the very end.

I was originally going to have Penny reflecting on everything that gave it away (permaybehaps her noticing that Billy had a bruise in the same exact place as Dr. Horrible had, and her recalling the fact that he had said _Bad Horse_) but it just didn't flow as smoothly... so yeah.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. :D Reviews are, naturally, loved.

Toodle pip!

-WS


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